Through the Mirror
by Kordi
Summary: For over 50 years Ceridwen has tried to prove herself among the sorcerers and sorceresses of Findahl, and for over 50 years she has failed. In her frustration she accidentally opens a portal into the shadow world and enters into a human game.
1. Prologue

Through the Mirror

By Kordi

Disclaimer: The story _Through the Mirror_ is based on the books _Night of the Solstice, Heart of Valor,_ and _The Forbidden Game_ trilogy by the very talented L.J. Smith. I, in now way, claim to own them.

Prologue

Ceridwen ran out of the small village and into the woods, clutching her books tightly to her chest. Tears streamed down her cheeks in torrents, leaving a trail like the Nile River in her wake. Finally she stopped running and leaned against a tree, her cheeks crimson and her eyes puffy from crying.

Every day had been the same for over fifty years. The other sorcerers and sorceresses never took her seriously because she was a walking catastrophe. Memorizing every book in the library and studying non-stop had done nothing for her. She would try to start a fire and instead it would start to rain.

She was the laughing stock of their world, the poor little sorceress who could never do anything right, the stupid girl who always ruined everything.

She was small, too small. She looked like a child and everyone treated her like one. She stood at 5' 1" and looked extremely common with her light brown hair and brown eyes. At times she had heard others say she looked like a human, and with the way most of her spells turned out she often believed that maybe she was one. Putting her in the land of magic where she could not use hers had been a huge, cruel joke.

After staring off into space for nearly an hour she decided to return to the village. Hopefully those who had seen her most recent catastrophe would have dispersed by now and she would be free to wallow in her own self pity without having to listen to their snide remarks.

She trudged back to village slowly, allowing the breeze to dry the tears that lingered on her cheeks. This was always the hard part, returning back to the town, to her peers, to the scene of the crime. Running was easy, though never fun and never rewarding. Her entire life was spent running, hiding, crying - so much that she had become a master of all three.

She let the door to her small house slam shut behind herself and slumped onto the first piece of furniture she spotted. It was a large black chair with a grey pillow. She leaned over, pulled a throw blanket off of the back of the chair, and wrapped it around herself. Next she swung her feet over the side and leaned her head against the back of it.

Tomorrow she would stand in front of the council and they would decide whether or not she received her first staff. It would have been nice to be optimistic, but she had given up on that long ago. Every year for the past nine years she would stand in front of the council and they would deny her a staff. What would make this year any different?

She shifted slightly and pulled the blanket tighter around her body, staring up at the ceiling, hoping that somehow this year would not be a repeat of the others.

Ceridwen had been unable to sleep. She had been too upset because of the events of the previous day and too uneasy about appearing before the council. She had not been scheduled for evaluation until after lunch, yet she was bathed and dressed before the morning meal.

She had picked at a grapefruit and thrown out her toast without taking a single bite. Her nerves were getting the best of her, making her stomach queasy and her head throb.

Pulling a wine colored cloak out of a chest she draped it over her shoulders, grabbed a single spell book, and headed to the center of town where the council would convene at the great manor.

It was a huge, white building, with large windows and heavy doors. Lilies lined the path from the dirt road up to the front steps. Benches, ponds, waterfalls, and other flowering bushes were spread across the grounds. The serenity of the place almost calmed the butterflies' cart wheeling in Ceridwen's stomach.

Taking a deep breath she walked up the steps and knocked on the door. The wait that was barely two minutes seemed like an eternity to Ceridwen. Finally, the door swung open and she entered.

Inside everything was comprised of white and grey marble - floors, walls, ceilings, and decorations all glistened as the sunlight reflected off of the polished marble. Not one thing had changed in over fifty years.

"You're early," a male voice said suddenly from the far side of the room.

Ceridwen swung around to find she was looking at the Archon. "Yes, well I was," she paused, not wanting to let him know just how nervous she was, and decided to word her answer carefully, "I was excited."

"We may value excitement, but impatience and lies are frowned upon," he told her sternly. After a few moments of silence, he turned around and began walking down a hallway, "Follow me."

Ceridwen took a deep breath before picking up her things and hurrying down the hallway after the Archon. She was confused, he had never been the one to greet her before, and she wasn't sure whether this was a good or bad thing.

"We have devised three tests for you," he explained as Ceridwen followed him, "this year we are testing your ability to control nature."

She nodded and continued to follow, too nervous to speak.

"Here we are," the Archon said as he pushed the glass door open to reveal a beautiful garden where the testing and evaluation would be taking place.

As Ceridwen stepped into the center of the garden and looked out at the entire council she felt the butterflies in her stomach stop fluttering as they were replaced by the sudden feeling of nausea.

"Welcome back," a sorceress with a silver staff spoke, "I trust that you are well and excited about today."

Ceridwen nodded, still unable to speak. She removed her cloak and placed it on top of a stool that stood next to her and then looked up again. She was nervous and her hands shook despite how much she willed them to stop.

A sorcerer stood up from his seat and walked over to a large flowerpot. He pulled from his pocket a small seed, held it up to show Ceridwen, and then patted it gently into the soil. "Your first test is to make the flower grow and blossom. Show us that the plants in nature trust you as a friend and mother."

She walked over to the flowerpot and stared down at it, thinking. Finally she raised her two hands a few inches from the soil and began reciting a spell in a whisper. Everyone waited and watched as a small stem sprouted from the soil and reached for the sun. Ceridwen smiled within her self, pleased at first, but then frowned when she realized the bud would not open.

The flower did not blossom and therefore she failed her first test.

"Do not worry," the Archon told her, no expression on his face. "Ceridwen, you still have two more chances to prove yourself to us."

The sorcerer with the gold staff raised his hand over the flower and it wilted and died. "Your second test is to set the dried remains of that flower on fire."

Again Ceridwen held her hands over the flowerpot, reciting a spell in a small whisper. A single spark flew, followed by a second, and then finally smoke, but no fire surged to life.

She looked up at the members of the council, holding back tears. "It's no use."

"Do not lose heart," the Archon told her.

The sorceress with the silver staff replaced the sorcerer near the flowerpot, and spoke to Ceridwen, "I know you have it in you, but I don't understand why you can't feel it like we can." She looked at the flowerpot and the entire thing caught fire. The flames crept up to the sky, hot and blazing. "Your third and final test is to call on Mother Nature. Make it snow and put the fire out."

Ceridwen didn't want to hold her breath, knowing perfectly well that she was doomed to another year without a staff. Still though, she had to complete the test. She looked up at the sky and then raised her hands. She spoke spells and chants in whispers again as the clouds began to shift and realign themselves.

Was it a miracle? Was Ceridwen really doing it?

The cloud moved closer, covering the bright sun, and stopped just above the garden. All of the council members looked up as large drops of rain splashed onto them. It came down quickly, splashing everywhere, extinguishing the fire, but snow was nowhere in sight.

That was it. She had failed all three tests. She couldn't make a flower grow, she couldn't start a fire, and she couldn't make it snow. She was a failure.

A failure…

The Archon raised his hand and the clouds receded back, allowing the sun to shine through and dry the garden.

Ceridwen looked at him and the other council members, no happiness, no hope, no spark in her eyes.

The Archon looked at each of the council members one at a time, and each of them nodded their heads in agreement. Finally he stood up and spoke to everyone, "Ceridwen, it would be wrong to say that you don't have the ability or the heart to wield magic… but I am accurate when I say that you lack the courage and faith to use it. For a tenth year in a row you have failed the tests we put before you and because of this we cannot offer you a staff."

Ceridwen didn't cry, she knew this was coming. It was the same every year.

The Archon began speaking again and Ceridwen looked at him confused. In the past he had never said anything after that. "You have become a liability because you have the power but are unable to harness it. If this was not a simple test but instead a battle you may very well have lost it for us. Because of this we put it to a unanimous vote, and the council has decided that we are revoking your right to use magic."

Now the tears came, leaving streaks of salty water down her face. She grabbed her cloak and book and ran from the great manor, not stopping or looking back until she reached her home.

The door slammed shut again just like the previous night, and she slumped against it. Wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her dress Ceridwen walked over to the hanger to put her cloak on it and something long and silver fell to the floor. Leaning over she picked it up and turned it over in her hands, examining it. It was the staff of a council member. In her anger she had accidentally grabbed it with her cloak.

She grasped it tight in her hand, growing even more upset knowing that it was something she could never wield legally. She stood up then, still holding the silver staff, and looked into the mirror beside the coat rack. Suddenly it was like a switch was turned to on. She glanced down at the staff in her hand and then back into the mirror. A large grin spread across her face, and she knew how she would prove to everyone that they were wrong about her.


	2. Chapter 1

-1**Through the Mirror**

**By Kordi**

**Chapter 1**

Ceridwen quickly grabbed all the supplies she would need, thankful that she had memorized the famous Morgana Shee's biography while studying in the library. The information in it would definitely come in handy if she really intended to make her outlandish idea work.

She had spread all the supplies out across her bed and began checking them off: deerstongue, ginger, mugwart, oakmoss, thyme, incense, and candles. She placed a velvet bag full of white stone runes into her pocket.

Moving the mirror had been a problem. It was large and bulky. She nearly dropped it twice while trying to remove it from the wall so that it was at a height where she could fit through easily.

She was rushing, yes, but there was a good reason for that. Each second that passed was a second closer to a council member realizing his or her staff was missing. Once the council realized it was missing it was only a matter of time before they put all the facts together and realized Ceridwen had it.

She had a lot to do and very little time. After preparing everything she had to craft a talisman. Once the talisman was crafted she had to turn the mirror into a portal.

Normally it was a long and tedious job. No sorcerer or sorceress in his or her right mind would do this. But that's all it was, tedious. After hearing the stories of the four human children that helped the legendary Morgana by crafting a talisman of their own, Ceridwen figured that even she couldn't screw that part up. If a human could do it she certainly could do it.

She grabbed all the supplies off of her bed in one large armful and brought them into the hallway leading to the living room where the large full-length mirror was. She dumped all the supplies onto the floor, along with the silver staff, and sat down amongst them. She began mixing the ingredients together, being extremely careful to not overdue anything.

Once the ingredients were thoroughly mixed she placed a stone into them, lifted the silver staff, spoke in a hushed whisper, and removed the stone after a few seconds. She tied a cord to it and then wrapped the completed talisman around her neck.

Next, she began preparing the mirror since it had never been used in this way before. She sprinkled salt water on it and lit candles and incense around it. The talisman was the stone mixed in a combination of flowers, plants, and herbs. It symbolized the fourth and final element.

Ceridwen stepped back and looked at the mirror. This was it, the moment of truth. Would she step through into the human world or bounce off the glass of the mirror, remaining forever trapped in Findahl?

She walked backwards across the room, trying to leave enough distance so that she could get a running start. If she just stood there and walked through she knew she would never do it, she was too afraid of what lay on the other side. But, if she had momentum behind her there would be nothing to stop her when all the doubts and fears came rushing to the surface of her mind.

She grasped the silver staff tight in her hand and sprang forward, dashing towards the mirror as though it was about to disappear any second.

When she stepped out on the other side she was in a small room with no doors and no windows. Her first instinct was to turn around and jump back into the mirror, but she heard a noise coming from the far corner. She walked over to the noise and saw a small child who couldn't be more than five years old clinging onto the pants leg of a boy who appeared to be in his mid to late teens.

"Who are you?" Ceridwen asked them, "And where are we?"

The little girl clung tighter to the boy's clothes. He looked up at Ceridwen, a troubled expression on his face. "I'm Connor and this is my sister Avery. As for where we are… I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"Well how did you get here?" Ceri insisted.

"Our mother just remarried and we moved to a new town," Connor began to explain, "in the basement of our new house we found this game. My sister begged me to play with her, saying that she had no friends in this new town and she was very bored. I agreed, we opened up the game and set everything up according to the directions… but when we put the playing pieces on the board the strangest thing happened-"

"You entered the game," Ceridwen finished for him. Oh god what had she done? She recognized that technique immediately. The Shadowmen used it to lure in humans since they could not enter the human world themselves. As long as they read the directions on the game box and agreed to the warnings they were stuck.

Connor furrowed his brow, "How did you know that?"

Ceri shifted the staff in her hand and Connor eyed it curiously as he picked his sister up protectively. "No time to answer that now," she grabbed his hand and began dragging him in the direction of the mirror. "We have to get out of here before they come."

"They?" Connor asked her.

"The Shadowmen," she said acidly as she continued dragging them toward the mirror, "Go through it. Trust me."

"The what?" he asked again.

"Me," a new male voice stated flatly as he materialized in front of the mirror.

Ceridwen took a step back, shoving Connor and Avery behind her. Now was the time to start really panicking. For starters, she was trespassing, a huge problem when the various worlds were concerned. The humans were safe… safe in the broadest sense of the word. They had come through the game the Shadowmen created and were therefore there legally… maybe not of their own free will, but still legally.

Ceri glanced back quickly to see Connor holding onto his sister as though he might lose her any second, which she realized suddenly that might very well happen. Avery had her arms wrapped around her brother's neck to the point where Ceridwen could have sworn he should have been blue or purple by now.

She looked back at the Shadowman, debating whether or not this was a good time to start showing courage. "Wh-wh-" Yep, she spoke marvelously when in an awkward situation. She was suddenly reminded of the test she had failed only hours earlier. She couldn't find her voice then either.

Humans she could handle, but council members and Shadowmen were another story entirely. And the way he was staring at her, eyeing her like a lion waiting to pounce, wasn't helping any.

She had heard tales of how grotesque the Shadowmen were, but nothing had prepared Ceridwen for this. He was tall, probably over six feet, and with Ceri's small stature beside him he appeared even taller. He had a human-like body covered in reptile skin. It was a mixture of greens and browns with a bright golden chest and abdomen like the underside of a turtle shell or lizard. At first she thought he had a hunchback, but after squinting her eyes in the darkness she could see that it was not a hunchback but instead leathery bat-like wings pulled and tucked close to his body. His eyes were the same gold as his chest, making him resemble a reptile even more.

Ceri finally found her voice, "Who are you and why are you blocking my path?" Probably not the two most important questions to be asking him; he was obviously a Shadowman. Why he was standing in front of her was easy to answer too. She had trespassed. But, she wasn't exactly in a very good state of mind at the moment.

"Braedan," the Shadowman answered as he focused his predatory gaze solely on Ceridwen, "and because I can."

The way his voice flowed was beautiful. When he spoke he sounded almost human, and his movements said that at one point he might have been one.

He had actually told her more than she expected. "What do you plan on doing with us?"

Braedan's mouth formed an evil grin, "A game, as always… my kind loves games." He lifted his hand and the staff Ceridwen was holding disappeared. "Using that would have been cheating… though I must say I shouldn't have been able to take it from a great sorceress of Findahl so easily."

Ceri stood stiff, rigid, as she looked at him, refusing to comment to the last statement. Having him think she was a great sorceress was the only thing she had going for her at the moment.

Connor shifted behind her and Ceridwen finally remembered that there were other people there. Braedan had managed to instill so much fear in her in such a short time that she wasn't thinking straight and barely remembered anything that had happened since she arrived in the Shadow World.

"What kind of game?" she asked him. Her palms were sweaty from the terror she felt. She had heard about the games Shadowmen enjoyed playing and wasn't very fond of any of them.

"The kind of game isn't nearly as exciting as the stakes," he told her taking a step closer to her.

"Get away from her!" Connor shouted as he walked up beside Ceri.

Avery stood on the floor between the two of them now, peering between them at the monster her brother was shouting at.

Braedan raised his hand and Connor went flying across the room, slamming into the wall. "I am talking with the sorceress, not you. She has disobeyed the law and therefore she must pay. You, human, are here on entirely different terms."

"I trespassed, not him," Ceridwen said in anger, "don't take this out on him."

Avery ran over to her brother, her small arms reaching for him, trying to pull his unconscious body up.

"So, you have compassion for these humans? You have a heart?" Braedan sneered at her, "Don't worry, I will have broken it by the time you finish the game."

"If I play the game will you forget that I trespassed and not enter Findahl?" she asked him anxiously. By breaking the pact between Findahl and The Shadowworld Ceridwen had given the Shadowmen the opportunity to invade her world.

"Of course not," he told her, "That's no fun. But, I do have a better idea." He licked his lips before continuing. "If you play the game and win I will allow you to demand of me one thing. If you wish to return to Findahl just say the word and I will step away from the mirror. If you wish for my people to not invade your world only say the word and I will forget that you trespassed. But, if you lose the game you remain mine forever."

"That's not fair," she countered, noticing that from her anger courage was born. "If I choose to return home you will invade my world and I will end up being yours. If I tell you I don't want you to invade I cannot return home and I am stuck here as yours. And if I lose I'm yours. Where is the fairness in this?"

"I find it very fair," he drawled, "You broke the most sacred pact between the worlds. In fact, this may even be too lenient."

"And what about the humans?" she asked, "Can they return to their world?"

"If they survive the game," he responded, laughing. "I would ask if you agree to the terms, but you have no choice in the matter."

"Are you at least going to tell us what this game entails?" Connor had finally woken up and was brushing himself off as Avery jumped on him.

"For a human you are very demanding. You're lucky I don't crush you and your sister right now."

Connor slumped back and Ceridwen was thankful for small miracles. He must have been crazy as it was to stand up to a monster like that.

Ceri put her arm in front of Connor to keep him behind herself and looked Braedan directly in his yellow serpent-like eyes. "We have the right to know what this game is and what the rules are since it is our lives you are playing with."

"You have twenty four hours to make it back to the mirror. This building is a maze in the center of the Shadow World, if you step outside of it I cannot control what the elements or other Shadow Men might do to you, but you can leave if you wish. While traversing the maze you will battle nightmares, monsters, and any other skeletons locked away inside your own minds." He continued to grin, "Every hour on the hour the clock will chime with how many hours you have left. Any questions?" He didn't give them any time to answer. Instead he said, "No? Good, then let the games begin!" snapped his fingers, and Ceridwen, Connor, and Avery were scattered throughout the house in various locations.


	3. Chapter 2

-1Through the Mirror

By Kordi

Chapter 2

Ceridwen blinked and found she was standing in a completely different room. At least she thought it was different. It was difficult to tell exactly where she was since the room was completely black and she couldn't make out anything even one inch in front of her face.

"Damn that Shadowman!" she cursed vehemently as she stubbed her toe on an unknown object. Vulgar language continued pouring from her mouth as she walked slowly across the room, grabbing anything she could so that she wouldn't trip and fall over something not seen.

She suspected the room wasn't overly large, just difficult to maneuver with absolutely no sign of light at all. When she eventually reached the wall she leaned on it, finally allowing her mind to take over. Confusion was the first thing to sweep over her. She never feared the dark… it wasn't a nightmare she kept hidden from the world… in fact she often found sanctuary in the dark. So, why then did Braedan send her here?

The clock sounded twenty-three times and brought Ceridwen out of her trance. An hour could not have passed already. Battling furniture in the dark had proved to be more of an obstacle than demons.

She began groping the wall, searching for a doorway, door, window, crack, anything that would let her out. Finally, she struck pay dirt. Something was there, not a door, but something. A button? No, a switch. She went to flip it but was stalled by a voice… his voice…

"You really don't want to do that," Braedan told her casually.

"Why not?" Ceridwen whirled around to face the direction his voice had come from, "Are big monsters going to come out and devour me whole?" She tried to make the question sound sarcastic, hoping that he wouldn't realize she meant it as a question and not a joke.

She couldn't see the expression on his face but somehow she knew he was amused. "It's called a light switch… from the human world." He took a step closer to her. Now she could hear his breathing but was still unable to see him. "Sometimes the darkness is safer than the light."

"Why? Are you afraid I may see your face again?" she snapped before she realized exactly what she had said to him. She mentally scolded herself. She was playing his game in his world with his rules. She couldn't risk making him angrier than he already was.

Ceri wished she could see the expressions on Braedan's face while they talked, but she couldn't even see an outline or a shadow of his form. Somehow she knew that even though she couldn't see him he could see her perfectly.

She heard him take another step closer and tried to step back, but found herself already pinned against the wall. For someone who was never claustrophobic, this was definitely the wrong time to start.

"You've seen it once," was his simple reply, "it hasn't changed." She heard him take another step.

Lifting her arm to the switch he deemed a light switch she flipped it up. The lights began to flicker on slowly, too slowly. Before the room was ablaze Braedan had turned to gaze intently at the globes before they shattered into a million pieces, glass raining down on them.

Ceridwen tried to run for cover but he blocked her path, "I told you not to do that."

She had caught a quick glimpse of him during the few moments that the room had been slightly illuminated and her assumptions were confirmed. A sinister grin danced across his face from ear to ear.

"I should have known you would do that," she confessed, "you did warn me not to flip the switch."

"You fell for the oldest trick in the book."

Way to not build my self-esteem she thought as she countered, "But I'm learning. Now I'll know for next time."

"No, you won't," he said it with so much confidence she was forced to believe him. "I never play the same way twice."

And it was probably true, she realized. With the way he looked and what she knew about the Shadowmen she realized that Braedan had probably been playing these games for hundreds of years. He probably knew every trick there was. He was probably a professional at manipulating his players. Speaking of players…

"Isn't it against the rules for you to be conversing with the players?" she asked curiously.

Braedan took a step closer and Ceri could feel his breath on the side of her face as he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Here, I am the rules."

Too close, he was way too close. It registered in her brain like a flashing, screeching, warning. She had to find a way to get rid of him, but how?

All things considered, first she would need to be able to see him. Holding one hand behind her back she closed her eyes and concentrated, forming a small ball of light. Next she opened her hand and held it palm up as the small ball of luminosity floated to the center of the room.

When she opened her eyes to see Braedan he had vanished as quickly as he had come.

"It's missing!" Aidan screamed as he threw the contents of his closet onto the floor for a third time.

He knew searching his quarters was useless since he remembered bringing the silver staff down to the meeting earlier that day. The problem was he had scoured the garden with no luck and searched the large conference room and libraries twice.

Holders of silver staffs didn't just misplace them; it was careless and unheard of. If he didn't find his staff before the next council meeting he was doomed.

"Ok, just calm down," he said out loud, hoping no one was walking by to see him talking to himself, "just relax, Aidan, or you will never find it."

He glanced over his room from the doorway and shook his head in disgust. Even if the staff was in there somewhere he would never find it now. The room looked like a tornado had just hit, uprooting and overturning all the furniture while dumping any and all the contents of the drawers onto the floor.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and that's exactly what he was… desperate. If he had his staff and was missing another item he would have used magic to find it hours earlier, but without his staff he wasn't as adept with his magic. Hopefully, making a few minor alterations to the spell would result in still locating the missing item.

Aidan began rummaging through the heaping mess of his room until he had found all the supplies he would need. It was a simple, old spell, one that even someone with no background history in the magical arts could still accomplish.

Quickly he melted candles in a large metal pot until they were of a water-like consistency and poured the liquid into a large bowl filled with cold water. He watched as the wax began to form shapes as it cooled.

He leaned in close to look in the bowl and traced the wax shape with his eyes. It appeared to be the face of a young woman. Big bright eyes, a small nose, full lips. The wax was all one color so trying to go by eye and hair color was no use. He continued to stare at the wax sculpture as he pictured in his mind everyone he had seen that day.

"Ceridwen," he whispered, remembering, "I had placed my staff on the stool when first entering the garden and than another council member came over to talk with me. I must have forgotten it on the stool."

It made sense, he realized. Whether she took it intentionally or not didn't matter to Aidan, all that did matter was getting it back.

He shut and locked the door to his room and began a brisk walk from the great manor to her small cottage on the edge of town. When he arrived there he walked up the small path and knocked on the door. No answer so he knocked again. Still no answer so he began to bang loudly.

The door creaked open but no one was there to greet him. Aidan poked his head around the door and gasped when he saw all of the supplies on the floor… and then his eyes spotted the mirror. Not only had she directly disobeyed the council's decree by using magic but she had done it by practicing forbidden magic while using a stolen staff.

But he didn't have time to be worrying about the hundreds of ways Ceridwen had disobeyed the council or the thousands of punishments she would be receiving when she returned. Now, Aidan had to find her on the other side of that mirror and reclaim his silver staff before she did something really stupid.

Luckily the candles and incense were still burning and all of the herbs and stones had been previously blessed. All he had to do was tie some cord around the talisman and jump through. They would be back before dinner.

And that was exactly what he did. Aidan grabbed a stone, tied the cord around it, placed it around his neck, and walked through the mirror.

And he stood rock solid, frozen still from fear and amazement. The monster standing in front of him was tall, with scaly skin and bright, menacing eyes.

Aidan drew his hand back instinctively and then pushed it forward quickly. Nothing happened.

"Where the hell am I?" he shouted, "What's going on here?"

The creature looked on him, an expression resembling a smile on his face. "Great Sorcerer of Findahl, I, Braedan, welcome you to the Shadow World." He licked his lips and took a step forward.

As Braedan moved forward Aidan moved back. Oh goddess, what had Ceridwen done? Something really stupid had already happened and he was too late… and so much before making it back before dinner… he would be lucky just to make it back alive and in one piece.

"You're wondering why your magic doesn't work," Braedan told him, "unfortunately I am unable to answer that. Maybe you should ask your young friend. She is the one who crafted the mirror, afterall."

"Ceridwen? Where is she?" Aidan demanded.

"Come now," Braedan seemed in a playful mood, "do you honestly think that it is right for you to enter my world uninvited and then question and demand me?"

"What have you done with her? Did she have a silver staff with her?" Aidan began to ramble.

"Are you speaking of this?" Braedan held up his hand and a silver staff materialized.

"Yes!" Aidan leapt for it, but Braedan was quicker. The staff disappeared and Aidan stumbled forward a few feet before recovering his balance. "Where did it go?"

"A game," Braedan told him, "Ceridwen is playing a game. If she survives it and reaches this mirror before time runs out I told her she has the opportunity of stopping Findahl from being invaded."

"But what does this have to do with my staff?" Aidan blurted out.

The expression on Braedan's face shifted from a smile to that of annoyance. "You will play too. If you win I will give you the staff back… If you lose you remain here, as mine, forever."

Aidan nodded, dumbfounded. How had the Shadow Man managed to keep such control over him?

Braedan snapped his fingers and Aidan was gone.

It took a moment for Ceridwen's eyes to adjust to the light she had created, but she didn't mind waiting because the shock of having one of her own spells work correctly needed to subside.

Once the shock was gone she jumped up, shouting, "YES! YES! I DID IT!" and stopped when she realized where she was. Her excitement was replaced by hate. "No. No. Oh goddess no."

This was her nightmare, the thing she dreaded above all things. It was the garden where the testing to earn a staff took place. All the council members formed a circle around Ceridwen, watching her.

The Archon stood up and looked at her, "Ceridwen, are you ready for your first test?"

She looked on him, half confused and half knowing that this wasn't real. "But I already took the test today. I failed, don't you remember?"

A sorcerer with a gold staff stood up, "You are doomed to fail."

"Well in that case I'm not ready for the test," Ceridwen told him, nervously. "I don't want to fail again."

Now a sorceress stood up, "But you must remain here until you do pass."

Another sorcerer, this time one with a silver staff, "Only you will never pass. You have been tested ten times and have failed ten times… surely you can not expect to ever pass at this rate."

One by one the council members began to stand up and shout and chant. "You are doomed to fail. You are doomed to fail."

Ceridwen clamped her hands over her ears and started screaming, trying to drown out the voices of the council members. "No! I'm not! No! No!"

It was no use. The more pressure she put on her ears the louder the chanting grew. "You are doomed to fail. You are doomed to fail."

The floor faded away and in its place was a large spinning wheel. Ceridwen stood in the center, her hands over her ears. The wheel began to rotate and all the council members began to revolve around her.

The voices were coming from all directions, evil, menacing, and intimidating. Ceridwen fell to her knees as she continued to scream.

Now they started to close in on her. As they moved in Ceridwen's direction their bodies started to change shape. Their hands turned into claws, their eyes were red and glowing, the teeth in their mouth looked razor sharp.

Ceridwen jumped up and began lashing out at them, "Get away!" she shouted, "Leave me alone."

"You are doomed to fail."

She pulled her arm back, formed a ball of fire in her hand, and launched it at the council member turned monster closest to her. He went up in flames as she smiled, "If I'm going to turn into you I don't want to pass."

They stopped attacking.

She looked at them confused. What was going on? Could it be? "I don't want to pass," she said again.

They began retreating.

"I DON'T WANT TO PASS!"

And they were gone.

She fell down onto the ground, leaning over breathing deep. She did it… she survived the nightmare.

A few things about it were still out of place though. Never had she feared the council members turning into monsters. And her magic, it had worked for a second time.

Ceridwen wanted some answers and she wanted them now. She shuffled to her feet and then began calling to him in a loud, shrill voice. "Braedan! You sadistic bastard! Braedan get over here right now!"

The form in front of her was distorted until it had completely materialized. He looked down on her through his golden eyes and grinned from ear to ear. "Hey honey, I'm home."


End file.
